Friday, September 4, 2009

The Republican Agenda

I'll bet you have no idea what this post is about. "The Republican agenda": what does that bring to mind in 2009?

I'll give you some time...

Need more time?

Ok, time's up.

So what do we have? A leading GOP governor takes time to make the platform clear: the president shouldn't speak to schoolchildren! Are you serious? Given a chance to say something about the public school system or civic responsibility, all that Tim Pawlenty has to say is that Obama shouldn't say anything?

This month has been one of the great opportunities in the past three years for the articulation of a clear conservative agenda, particularly on health care. Instead? The Republicans are the Party of 'No'. They're right: Americans don't want the creeping socialism of Obamacare. But just like the Democrats on Social Security reform 4 years ago, "no" is not enough: Americans do want marginal reforms and they do want to find representatives who can evaluate an idea for its policy merits as well as its political ones.